Attiya Ahmad

Is the traditional view that U.S. leadership in the Middle East advances our strategic interests well judged? As president, Barack Obama upended many assumptions about that view. He turned heads in dismissing Saudi Arabia as a “so-called ally” and reached out to Iran, hoping to make it less dangerous.  

The U.S.-led coalition announced today that it “destroyed additional pro-Syrian regime forces that advanced inside the well-established de-confliction zone in southern Syria.” The U.S.

A senior Iranian official has said that cooperation between Iran and Russia in Syria elevated relations between the two countries to a strategic level and changed the balance of power in Syria in favor of the government of Bashar al-Assad and its foreign allies.

A senior Iranian official said that the era of American “hegemony” has ended and called on the U.S. military forces to leave the Middle East region.

Iraqi Kurdish Region President Masud Barzani has warned that the Hashd al-Shaabi – the paramilitary Iraqi forces also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) – is complicating the security and political situation in Mosul and broader Nineveh Province.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Yousef Munayyer, Randa Slim, and Paul Salem provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Israel’s expected announcement of new settlement expansion, the escalating risk of a clash between U.S.-backed and pro-Iranian forces in southeastern Syria, and Lebanon’s efforts to pass a reformed election law.

Iranian leaders and media outlets today reacted to a decision by Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations to sever diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar by blaming Washington and Riyadh for regional tension and discord. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, said the rising tension is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East.

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) – also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi – on Sunday seized the center of al-Baaj, one of the last bastions of the Islamic State in northwestern Iraq close to the Syrian border, the Iraqi and Iranian media reported. Iraqi air force assisted the P.M.F.

A senior Iranian military official has said that the country’s 47th flotilla of warships will be deployed to the Indian Ocean this month to protect the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers, according to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards (I.R.G.C.), “The 46th flotilla, which was dispatched to the high seas some time ago, is now halfway through its mission and will return home in the coming days,” Rear Admiral Peyman Jafari Tehrani, the deputy commander of the Iranian Navy, said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday blasted the Trump administration for trying to create a regional security alliance to counter Iran, and claimed that the new initiative will not succeed.

After making significant territorial gains in western Mosul and reaching the Syrian border, Iran-backed Iraqi militia forces today announced that they plan to “recapture” the strategic al-Tanf border crossing from the U.S.-backed Syrian opposition groups, the Iranian media reports.

Read the full article on The Cipher Brief.

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces today seized more territory from the Islamic State in western Mosul near the Syrian border, the Iranian media reports. After heavy clashes with Islamic State militants south of the al-Ba’aj region, the paramilitary forces reportedly captured the village of al-Khibra and the nearby al-Sakaar housing complex.

The persecution of the Baha’i community in Yemen has markedly increased and resembles the state-sanctioned mistreatment of the minority group inside Iran, according to the latest reports by the United Nations and human rights organizations. “The recent escalation in the persistent pattern of persecution of the Bahá’í community in Sana’a mirrors the persecution suffered by the Bahá’ís living in Iran,” the U.N.